The Spectacle Blog

It's been all Clinton all the time in my news feed, so we're definitely due for a palate cleanser.

While we've all been reliving the most important sex scandal of the 1990s (outside of anything that happened on Beverly Hills: 90210), why shouldn't we also relive the most important sex scandal in the history of 2013? Anthony Weiner may have sworn off sexting women on Twitter, at least, as far as we know, in favor of just simply berating random people in the virtual space on rare occasions, but his DM partner-turned-adult film star Sydney Leathers has not similarly sworn off social media. And, thanks to Amazon receipts obtained by gossip website, The Dirty, we know that she's still in the same field: conducting virtual trysts with Democratic politicians.

Sydney Leathers is back. The woman at the center of former congressman Anthony Weiner's (D-N.Y.) 2013 sexting scandal is at the center of another, this time with an Indiana state lawmaker.

I've heard more about the Logan Act from armchair political science scholars in my Facebook feed in two days than I heard in actual political science classes.

This is all because, apparently, a bunch of Senators who wrote a letter confirming that the Obama Administration couldn't unilaterly approve a nuclear technology treaty with Iran without first consulting Congress. Suddenly, they're "siding with hardliners" (as though there is anything but in Iran) and undermining the authority of the President (to do, what, exactly?), even though John Kerry himself admits that nothing hammered out with Iran is final or legally biding. As fantastic as the letter has been for Obama's standup comedy career, it does drive home the point that any agreement reached is temporary, at best.

If you found it hard to imagine that Bill Clinton was just sending loads of email to his wife, after she excused some of her missing private emails yesterday by noting that they were from the former President, you weren't alone. In fact, it seems Bill Clinton can't really remember much in the way of electronic communication with Hillary either.

The State Department may have initiated the request for Hillary's emails, but it seems they weren't overly specific in terms of what they were looking for. Their oversight may end up testing the boundaries of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Associated Press filed a lawsuit today in an attempt to force the State Department to release certain key emails authored or in the possession of one Hillary Rodham Clinton. Apparently, the AP has been filing FOIA request after FOIA request for years, seeking a response, and the State Department has been reticent to address them. One such FOIA request has been languishing for five years. And so, in light of Secretary Clinton's statements on the subject (including that 30,000 of her emails are now lost to the "brown file"), they're taking their request to the courts.

How amusing to see what the Clintons have been up to. We’ve all been there before, but what I especially like is the reaction from the Left. I recall what they said after Bill left the White House, amidst the corrupt pardons and the attempt to steal George W. Bush’s thunder with a very public party during his inauguration. “We’ll never trust them again,” the Left told us. “We’ve learned our lesson. You were right. They’re lying scum.” As indeed they are. But I’d give the Hillary email scandal a half-life of 12 minutes, after the Left realizes that they’re the only game in town for them.

Do you remember Barry Goldwater? The sainted junior Senator, Jim Buckley? They were the people from our side who delivered the message to Richard Nixon that it was quittin’ time. And are we to think that they, the noblest Republicans of all, were merely patsies?

An overturned tanker truck spilled about 1,100 gallons of fuel on the I-95 in Prince George’s County outside Washington earlier today. Meanwhile, back at the White House, Obama worries about the safety of an oil pipeline.

The Washington Postreports this morning that “on Monday Pakistan test-fired a ballistic missile that appears capable of carrying a nuclear warhead,” the Shaheen-III, which “has a range of up to 1,700 miles.” The Post would like us to believe that Pakistan was sending a message to its long-time rival, India, even as it puzzles over the visit the week before between India’s foreign secretary and Pakistani diplomats in Islamabad, presumably to improve relations.

I've removed the UN press conference live feed now that Hillary is done talking because I highly doubt you want to continue to watch people standing around staring at a step and repeat. I mean, maybe that's your thing. But do it on your own time.

Anyway, here's what we learned from Hillary's brief, somewhat contentious (as least as far as Andrea Mitchell was not involved) press conference at the United Nations. It began, as many press conferences have today, with a brief soliloquy on those dastardly Republicans who keep insisting on derailing the President's landmark discussions with Iran. She also made some brief remarks on the anniversary of the Beijing conference on Womens Rights, which she appears to have attended, noting that she is thrilled to be a part of the event and the commission, despite having accepted thousands in donations for the Clinton Foundation from countries where women are still regularly stoned for adultery.

I can't say for certain whether the Republican strategy of warning Iran, individually, that Congress has the power to override whatever deal the President thinks he's striking in Iran, is a winning one. My confidence in the Republican leadership to follow through on the threat of having a backbone has been eroded, and while I understand the need to do something before this all really goes off the rails, this might have been too much, too soon.

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